Alana's Birthday Party

Alana's birthday started out with her big birthday surprise! She stayed the night at Grammy's house on Thursday night and Arnold worked all day Friday putting it together. Alana came home Friday night and since it was dark did not see it in the yard. Saturday morning we were able to surprise her with her new playhouse swing set! She was kind of shocked, surprised and excited all at once! This was her big birthday gift from Arnold and I, My Mom and Dad and Mary and Shelly. She will get a lot of use out of this.

The theme of the party was jungle animals. This is Alana and her best friends Campbell and Monet at the jungle animal craft table. There were jungle animals to color, jungle animal stamps, stickers and paper to make pictures. The kids loved it and were really creative.

There was plenty of free play time on the new swing set!

Everyone enjoyed chips and dip and a lunch of hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries and salad. Yummy!

After lunch there was a monkey pinata!

This is Alana's personal cake! My sister decorated it, isn't is awesome!

Everyone else got cupcakes! I decorated these! They were so yummy!

And then there were presents!!

Sutter, Carrie, Jessica and my Dad and Steve in the background. Watching the pinata.

Jessica with her adorable boys, Jason and Anthony.

My mom, sister, Mary and Shelly enjoying their cupcakes!

Alana loves party hats, so she got her brother in on the action. They are so cute!

Alana had been anxiously anticipating this day for weeks now! She truly had a blast and loved every minute of it! Thank you so much to all of our friends and family who were there to make it such a special day! She had no nap and was way over tired, at the end of the day she was ready to cuddle up in her new hippo jammies and Where The Wild Things Are book that she got from Campbell and Monet and her new favorite doll The Cabbage Patch that Uncle Steve got her. It was a perfect day!

Thanksgiving

We got together at my moms house for Thanksgiving. It was me, Arnold, Alana, Cael, Kathy, Ron, Eileen, Steve, Mary and Shelly! The turkey was excellent, the gravy delicious, the potatoes nice and creamy and Eileens Potato Sage Rolls were tasty! I made a Grasshopper pie for dessert. It was all wonderful!

Cael looked on longingly at the turkey and other yummy foods! Next year buddy!

I left my camera at home and did not think to use my phone so that is all the pictures my Mom took on Thanksgiving, sorry!

Alana's School Birthday Celebration

At Alana's School, when you have a birthday you get a special cake and everyone sings happy birthday to you! It is a big deal for everyone! Kids LOVE birthdays! Alana knew her birthday was coming and has been watching other kids get thier cake for weeks now, and finally it was her turn!

You get to take the cake home with you.

Did I mention it is a playdoh cake? She still tried to eat it!She was really proud of her cake!

Visit with Nessa, Regan and Rylee

We also stopped to see my friend Nessa, who lives in Los Angeles.

Alana and Regan got to play for awhile.

It was a good visit!

Visit with Aunt Marilyn

On the way home we stopped by Aunt Marilyn's house to say a quick hello! It was really nice to see her, even if it was for only a quick visit.

Trip to see my Sister

Two weekends ago we took a trip with my mom to see my sister.
Just me and the kids, Arnold had to stay home to work!

My Cousins came up to my sisters house on Saturday to visit us.

It was so great to see everybody! I love spending time with my family! We always have so much fun!

We took a walk to the beach to try and see the sunset. It was during the fires so it was pretty colors.

Alana and Ella had a good time hanging out!

Cael was perfect as always!

Joe and Alana had so much fun playing on the floor at Eileens house. They read stories and played "where's Alana?" with a blanket, Alana was so happy!

Vanessa had a magic touch with Cael, he just fell right to sleep!

It was so nice to see everyone! Thanks for coming! See you soon!

Mary and Shellys Wedding

Even thought it was a few weeks ago now, I thought that I would put up some pictures of the wedding. The same woman who married Arnold and I, preformed the ceremony.

















They did a sand ceremony.






The flowers and decorations were beautiful! My sister and I worked hard making everything look beautiful!

















An Irish champagne/ beer toast!












Alana and Grampy enjoying some food.

Party guests and friends of Mary and Shelly.

Cael and I had a good time!

Eileen and Arnold enjoying a drink.

Congratulations Mary and Shelly!

Halloween

Alana was a Cowgirl this year for Halloween. The Halloween festivities started on Thursday with a carnival at the park for Alana's school. They have games with prizes and lots of yummy cupcakes! At the end there is a parade around the park where all the kids get to show off thier costumes. This is Alana in the parade playing her musical instrument

Cael was a clown! He was adorable! He had fun at the school carnival as well.

On Halloween night we went to celebrate with our friends Tyler, Sutter, Campbell and Monet Ellery.

We went to a huge Carnival at a church. There were tons of fun games, food, candy, bounce houses, it was incredible! And all free!

Alana and Monet enjoyed the Cotton Candy! Cael was such a good baby and such cute clown

Alana got a HUGE bag of candy "Trunk or Treating" from the cars in the parking lot!

It was a good Halloween. Can't wait till next year!

Lake Tahoe

So we took our first trip as a family of four to Lake Tahoe! None of us had ever been before so we were all excited to see someplace new. We took a ride on a boat to see the lake.

It was beautiful!!

We took a ride in a carriage pulled by a horse. The horse's name was King. Alana thought it was neat getting pulled around town by a horse.













Alana got to feed him a cookie for all his hard work when the ride was over.

We took a walk along the lake shore. It was a pretty beach and the clear water was amazing. It was cold outside and the water was even colder.














The hot tub was close to our room so we spent a lot of time in there!

Even Cael enjoyed his time at the hot tub!













We also just spent a lot of time hanging out in our beautiful room. It was big and spacious, Thanks to Mary for letting us use her time share! We had a great time, can't wait for the next adventure!